Rebel Rule of Law and FARC Justice

2021 ◽  
pp. 29-100
Author(s):  
René Provost

Chapter 1 considers the compatibility of the rebel administration of justice with the concept of the rule of law, using the FARC in Colombia as a case study. The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—Ejército del Pueblo (FARC) was the largest non-state armed group during five decades of civil war in that country. At its peak, it wielded dominant territorial authority in more than half of Colombian municipalities. While it generally did not establish standing institutions to administer justice, it imposed legal norms, co-opted existing community justice mechanisms, and established informal and hybrid practices to settle legal disputes in the civil and criminal law fields. FARC justice practices are used to explore the concept of the rule of law, an essentially contested legal concept that cannot be exclusively attached to the modern state. The rule of law is shown to be a concept with a flexible content, modulated by circumstances such as the onset of armed conflict. Elements of a rebel rule of law adapted to the nature of non-state armed groups and context of armed conflict are articulated based on applicable international humanitarian and human rights law. Finally, the principle of state sovereignty is analysed to show that it does not impart exclusive jurisdiction to the state over the administration of justice, but instead can accommodate justice practices by a diversity of actors, including non-state armed groups in conflict zones.

Author(s):  
René Provost

Rebel Courts presents an argument that it is possible for non-state armed groups in situations of armed conflict to legally establish and operate a system of courts to administer justice. Neither the concept of the rule of law nor the general principle of state sovereignty stands in the way of framing an understanding of the rule of law adapted to the reality of rebel governance in the area of justice. Legal standards applicable to non-state armed groups in situations of international or non-international armed conflict, including international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and international criminal law, recognise their authority to regularly constitute or establish non-state courts. The lawful operation of such courts is of course subject to requirements of due process, corresponding to an array of guarantees that must be respected in all cases. Rebel courts that are regularly constituted and operate in a manner consistent with due process guarantees demand a certain degree of recognition by international institutions, by states not involved in the conflict, to some extent by the territorial state, and even by other non-state armed groups. These normative claims are grounded in a series of detailed case studies of the administration of justice by non-state armed groups in a diverse range of conflict situations, including the FARC (Colombia), Islamic State (Syria and Iraq), Taliban (Afghanistan), Tamil Tigers (Sri Lanka), PKK (Turkey), PYD (Syria), and KRG (Iraq).


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby S. Goldbach

49 Cornell International Law Journal 618 (2016).This Article explores international judicial education and training, which are commonly associated with rule of law initiatives and development projects. Judicial education programs address everything from leadership competencies and substantive review of human rights legislation to client service and communication, skills training on docket management software, and alternative dispute resolution. Over the last twenty years, judicial education in support of the rule of law has become big business both in the United States and internationally. The World Bank alone spends approximately U.S. $24 million per year for funded projects primarily attending to improving court performance. And yet, the specifics of judicial education remains unknown in terms of its place in the industry of rule of law initiatives, the number of judges who act as educators, and the mechanisms that secure their participation. This Article focuses on the judges’ experiences; in particular, the judges of the Supreme Court of Israel who were instrumental in establishing the International Organization of Judicial Training.Lawyers, development practitioners, justice experts, and government officials participate in training judges. Less well known is the extent to which judges themselves interact internationally as learners, educators, and directors of training institutes. While much scholarly attention has been paid to finding a global juristocracy in constitutional law, scholars have overlooked the role that judges play in the transnational movement of ideas about court structure, legal procedure, case management, and court administration. Similarly, scholarship examines the way legal norms circulate, the source of institutional change, and the way “transnational legal processes” increase the role of courts within national legal systems. There is little scholarly attention, however, to judges as actors in these transnational processes. This Article situates judicial education and training within the context of judicial functions as an example of judicial involvement in non-caserelated law reform. This Article challenges the instrumental connection between judicial education and the rule of law, arguing that international judicial education became a solution at the same time that the problem— a rule of law deficit— was being identified. This Article also explores whether international judicial education can stand as an instantiation of a global judicial dialogue. Judges have immersed themselves in foreign relations. They are, however, less strategic in pushing their ideological agenda than literature about judges and politics would suggest. This Article argues that judges experience politics as a series of partial connections, which resemble most legal actors’ engagement with the personal and the political.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Ilyas ◽  
Dicky Eko Prasetio ◽  
Felix Ferdin Bakker

Abstract This study aims to analyze the application of morality to legal practice in Indonesia. This is because the reality of the rule of law today is dominated by a positivist-legalistic phenomenon that prioritizes text but darkens morality's meaning in law. Morality in law seems to be immersed in legal practice that deifies the textual law but neglects the law's moral essence. This research is juridical-normative research oriented towards coherence between the principles of law based on morality and legal norms and legal practice in society. This research's novelty is the development of morality in the rule of law practice by prioritizing two aspects, namely the integrative mechanism aspect of Harry C. Bredemeier with the progressive law of Satjipto Rahardjo. This study emphasizes that efforts to develop law must not forget the elements of morality development. This study's conclusions highlight that the development of law and morality will run optimally by upholding the law as an integrative mechanism and applying progressive law as a solution in facing the lethargy of the Indonesian nation.Keywords: integrative mechanism; morality; progressive lawAbstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis penerapan moralitas pada praktik berhukum di Indonesia. Hal ini dikarenakan bahwa realitas praktik berhukum saat ini didominasi oleh fenomena positivistik-legalistik yang mengutamakan teks tetapi menggelapkan makna moralitas dalam berhukum. Aspek moralitas dalam hukum seakan tenggelam dalam praktik hukum yang mendewakan tekstual undang-undang tetapi melalaikan esensi moral dalam undang-undang. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian yuridis-normatif yang berorientasi pada koherensi antara asas-asas hukum yang bersumber pada moralitas dengan norma hukum serta praktik hukum di masyarakat. Kebaruan dari penelitian ini yaitu pembangunan moralitas dalam praktik negara hukum dengan mengedepankan dua aspek, yaitu aspek integrative mechanism dari Harry C. Bredemeier dengan hukum progresif dari Satjipto Rahardjo. Hasil dari penelitian ini menegaskan bahwa upaya membangun hukum tidak boleh melupakan aspek pembangunan moralitas. Simpulan dalam penelitian ini menegaskan bahwa, pembangunan hukum dan moralitas akan berjalan secara optimal dengan meneguhkan hukum sebagai integrative mechanism serta menerapkan hukum progresif sebagai solusi dalam menghadapi jagat kelesuan berhukum bangsa Indonesia.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-62
Author(s):  
Edgar Franco-Vivanco

ABSTRACT The centralization of conflict resolution and the administration of justice, two crucial elements of state formation, are often ignored by the state-building literature. This article studies the monopolization of justice administration, using the historical example of the General Indian Court (gic) of colonial Mexico. The author argues that this court’s development and decision-making process can show us how the rule of law develops in highly authoritarian contexts. Centralized courts could be used strategically to solve an agency problem, limiting local elites’ power and monitoring state agents. To curb these actors’ power, the Spanish Crown allowed the indigenous population to raise claims and access property rights. But this access remained limited and subject to the Crown’s strategic considerations. The author’s theory predicts that a favorable ruling for the indigenous population was more likely in cases that threatened to increase local elites’ power. This article shows the conditions under which the rule of law can emerge in a context where a powerful ruler is interested in imposing limits on local powers—and on their potential predation of the general population. It also highlights the endogenous factors behind the creation of colonial institutions and the importance of judicial systems in colonial governance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 101 (911) ◽  
pp. 437-444

Even during armed conflict and other situations of violence, all children are entitled to their rights and protections as children without distinction based on their age, gender, religion, or whether they are associated with an armed group. Despite this, millions of children in conflict zones face discrimination, ostracization and stigmatization. This is particularly true for children affiliated with groups designated as “terrorist”, who face a range of challenges in reintegrating into society.Civil society can play an important role at the international, regional and domestic levels in helping children formerly associated with armed groups, or otherwise affected by armed conflict, to rejoin communities. Mira Kusumarini is a professional in the peace and security field in Indonesia who works to address the problems of women and children who have been associated with armed groups, and to help them reintegrate them into society. She is the Executive Director of the Coalition of Civil Society Against Violent Extremism (C-SAVE), a collaborative network of civil society organizations.In this interview, she discusses the challenges involved in the reintegration of children who have been associated with extremist groups in Indonesia and the stigma they face, as well as the importance of empathy in helping communities to heal.


2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth A. Rodman

The critics of the ICC in the Bush administration and its supporters within the human rights community have one thing in common: they assume that the ICC can evolve into a powerful institution independent of states, either to constrain American power or to act on a duty to prosecute to end impunity for perpetrators. Both overestimate the ability of the court to pursue a legalism divorced from power realities. The former attribute to the court powers it is unlikely to exercise, particularly if the United States remains outside the treaty. This is due, in part, to the safeguards within the Rome Statute, but more importantly, to the court's dependence on sovereign cooperation, which will lead it to place a high premium on cultivating the good will of the most powerful states. The latter overestimate the degree to which courts by themselves can deter atrocities. The ICC's effectiveness in any particular case will therefore be dependent on the political consensus of those actors capable of wielding power in that area. They also underestimate the need to compromise justice – at least, prosecutorial justice – in cases in which bargaining and compromise are the central means of facilitating transitions from armed conflict or dictatorship, and in cases in which the strength of the perpetrators and the limits of one's power would make legal proceedings either futile or counterproductive to other interests and values. Hence, decisions to prosecute must first be subjected to a test of political prudence, and then take place according to due process and the rule of law.


Author(s):  
Marc de Wilde

AbstractThe article analyzes the debate on 'constitutional dictatorship' that took place at the first annual conference of the Association of German Constitutional Lawyers in Jena in 1924. In their keynote lectures, Carl Schmitt and Erwin Jacobi argued that Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution authorized the President of the Reich to derogate from the rule-of-law provisions of the constitution if this was necessary to save its 'political substance'. Advocating a 'doctrine of derogation', they implicitly criticized one of the main methodological assumptions of legal positivism, i.e., that legal norms and politics, law and power, had to remain strictly separated. They thereby set the stage for the emerging 'conflict of methods and directions' that was to haunt German jurisprudence in subsequent years.


Author(s):  
Daphné Richemond-Barak

This chapter focuses on the application of the law of armed conflict to “urban” tunnels, that is, tunnels dug near, by, or against civilians. It examines the legal ramifications of urban tunnels for anti-tunnel operations and the protection of civilians in war. It suggests some answers, with a view to reconciling the rule of law with operational constraints. It also analyzes the status of civilians who help dig tunnels or find themselves inside a tunnel at the time of a strike. Finally, it considers the situation in which preexisting underground civilian infrastructure, such as subways or sewage systems, are used to launch attacks or carry out other types of hostile activity.


Author(s):  
Karinne Coombes

SummaryThis article explores how international humanitarian law (IHL) may apply to protect innocent civilians during the fight against transnational terrorism. To achieve the goal of allowing states to protect their populations from the threat of terrorism while respecting the rule of law and the rights of individuals, it is argued that, while IHL should remain applicable only to armed conflicts it must evolve so that it clearly applies to “transnational” armed conflicts (that is, armed conflicts between State A and a non-state actor based in State B, where State A uses force in the territory of State B without State B’s consent). Rather than recognizing a new third category of armed conflict to cover these situations, it is argued that non-international armed conflicts should be understood as a residual category that regulates all armed conflicts to which the parties are states and/or their agents.


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